(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a cowl cross member for a vehicle and more particularly, to a cowl cross member for a vehicle which has a column dive prevention structure.
(b) Background Art
Generally, a cowl cross member is installed in parallel with a vehicle body to improve strength or rigidity of the vehicle body and prevent the integrity of the vehicle body from being compromised in various directions (e.g., twisted or bent in front, rear, left and right directions). The cowl cross member couples a steering system to the vehicle body at a boundary disposed between an engine compartment of the vehicle and an interior passenger compartment of the vehicle body, and supports a duct of system for cooling, heating, and air conditioning.
In particular, the cowl cross member includes a cowl cross bar that serves as a reinforcing bar to support an instrument panel, and the cowl cross bar inhibits a dash panel, which constitutes electrical components and the vehicle body, from entering the interior passenger compartment of the vehicle to improve the safety for the passengers. The cowl cross bar is mounted between the dash panel and the engine room. For example, a steering shaft support unit is fixedly fastened to the cowl cross bar, and a pair of center supports, which has a predetermined length, is vertically disposed at a central portion of the cowl cross bar to fix the cowl cross bar to the floor of the vehicle.
Since the center support is fixedly and integrally coupled to the floor of the vehicle, the center support translates downward together with the floor of the vehicle when the floor moves downward in a vertical direction during a vehicle collision, and as a result, a column dive phenomenon occurs. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a steering system supported by the cowl cross bar is bent at a predetermined angle and generates a difference of about 50 mm. Accordingly, as a result, the steering system is bent by a predetermined angle M, and a deployment direction of an airbag cannot be ensured. The steering system causes an increase in the likelihood of an injury to an upper body of a passenger.
The above information disclosed in this section is merely for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.